


Ground Rules

by Ninkasa



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-14
Updated: 2012-02-14
Packaged: 2017-10-31 03:45:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/339535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninkasa/pseuds/Ninkasa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas gets a late night request he can’t quite refuse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ground Rules

He hated himself for this. 

And every time it happened, he felt certain there was some part of him that died a little.

It didn’t stop him from wrapping his fingers in her hair or pulling her in closer to him.

It just made him a little bit sicker afterwards. Made him consider ignoring it when his phone chimed with a call from Dean for fear that his friend could hear the betrayal in Castiel’s voice.

Meg laughed suddenly, loud and long and then she pulled away from him, sliding out of his grip and slipping completely out of his reach.

“Careful, Clarence,” she said, grinning at him in that malevolent way she had at times. “We have to stop meeting like this. People are going to start to talk.”

He narrowed his eyes at her and frowned. “What people?”

She shrugged a shoulder, continuing to stay just out of his arm’s reach. “Whoever it is keeps calling your phone,” she said after a moment.

Then there were footsteps coming down the alleyway and when Castiel turned back to look at her, she was gone.

He should have killed her in Carthage. It would have saved him so much grief and agitation now.

“Dude, what part of ‘stay in the car’, didn’t you understand?” Dean panted as he slowed down to stand next to Castiel.

Castiel turned slowly to look at Dean. He didn’t know what Dean saw on his face, but the hunter looked thoroughly alarmed.

“Whatever it is,” Dean said after a moment. “I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell Dean that Meg was here and that they should probably go after her, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to do so.

Besides, that would just lead to an explanation about how she’d gotten away in the first place and Castiel just didn’t want to explain that right now.

He was fairly certain Dean would take that as a betrayal and after Sam, he didn’t think Dean could take another betrayal of that magnitude.

So he didn’t say anything. He just shrugged and fell into step next to Dean back to the Impala where Sam was waiting at the end of the road, looking concerned and a bit frustrated.

It was better not to say anything at all. He wasn’t sure he could stand to see that broken look come across Dean’s face again. Not after the debacle with Ruby.

“Dude, are you okay?” Sam said slowly. He frowned at whatever face Dean was making and shook his head to climb back into the car.

Castiel didn’t say anything as they drove back to the motel.

And he continued to not say anything when his phone chimed at two in the morning with a text from an unknown source.

It said simply, Help.

Castiel chose to ignore it. Or tried to, but no sooner had he put the phone back in his pocket than it chimed again.

Clarence! HELP!

He frowned down at the phone, holding still as Dean flopped over on the bed he was sleeping on. On. Not in. He’d never seen Dean sleep IN a bed. 

Sam never stirred.

Castiel typed back “what” quickly and then rearranged his legs in the chair he had taken over. They’d fallen into the habit of taking turns on who slept in a bed and who took the chair or floor. 

Almost immediately the text came back, The waterfront warehouses. COME GET ME.

Castiel frowned down at the phone again. He’d never given her his number and he wasn’t entirely sure if she was trying to lead him into a trap. Or if this were. . .something else.

He waited another moment and then slid off the chair and went out onto the sidewalk in front of the motel.

He pushed the redial button and waited as it rang.

He only waited a moment when a breathless voice answered.

“WHAT?!”

There was the distinct sound of thumping and what sounded like water gushing.

Castiel closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them again. “You texted me, Meg.”

“Clarence!” came the breathless response. “Thank Hell! Where are you? Are you here?”

“No,” Castiel said, pressing his fingers to his eyes to try to get rid of the headache he could feel forming.

“Well, GET here!” she demanded. “Oof -- and maybe bring a shovel. Or a hammer.”

“Why do you need my help?” Castiel asked, even as he was headed in that direction. “And how did you get in this situation? Or better yet, what situation are you in?”

He could almost hear her rolling her eyes. “It’s a long story. Let’s just say this building IS haunted and it’s apparently ignored some of the more modern building codes. Are you coming?”

“Yes,” he answered.

“I don’t hear you yet,” she said. “Are you in the car?”

Castiel snorted. A habit he didn’t have a year ago. “No. Of course not. The last thing I want is --”

“For your precious Winchesters to know that you’re running off to help a demon,” she said. “Just tell them it’s a booty call.”

Castiel frowned even though he knew she couldn’t see it. “I don’t know what that means.”

Meg chortled. “Maybe not. But trust me. You’ve been getting them.”

Castiel sighed. He rather hoped that at any moment Dean or Sam would call him and he’d suddenly have an excuse not to go help her.

Which was really stupid because if he’d not wanted to help her, he would have ignored the original text.

He wondered if you could die from frustration.

Then he wondered what an aneurysm felt like because he was fairly certain this stabbing pain behind his eyes was not normal.

“Now where are you?”

Castiel stopped outside the gate of the warehouses they’d passed earlier in the day.

“I’m outside the gate,” he said.

“Did you bring a hammer?”

Castiel frowned and looked around at where there had been construction earlier and grabbed a sledge hammer that was laying off to the side.

“I have one now.”

“Good,” came the response. “Now come get me out! I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

Castiel sighed again. “If I do this. We have to lay down some sort of ground rules. I can’t just keep rushing off whenever you call -- err, text. Don’t you have something you could be doing?”

“Something or someone?” Meg demanded. “You love it. Shut up. Where are you?”

Castiel frowned and looked around, completely disoriented. All the buildings looked the same. “I’m next to -- a bunch of buildings.”

“I’m in B,” Meg said. 

Castiel frowned harder and looked around. He didn’t see any letters. The warehouses were all numbered.

“I think you’re confused,” he said.

“You’re confused,” came the standard response.

“Are you running out of oxygen?”

Silence for a moment. “No.”

“Too bad.”

“Shut up. Have you found it yet? Where are you? This shouldn’t take this long.” Silence again. “I don’t mean to alarm you, but if I die, you’re going to have to rely on your charm to get women.”

He didn’t want women in the first place. “They’re not high on my list of priorities,” he said, frowning as he walked his way past warehouse one, two and three. “It was your doing.”

“You started it.”

“I don’t see any warehouse B,” he said, ignoring her previous statement. “Are you certain you’re still in this city?”

“Yes, Clarence,” came the pithy response, followed by what sounded like some kind of scraping. “I would have noticed if I’d completely left town.”

“Well, that’s what I thought,” he said as he turned a corner and went past seven, eight and nine. “But I’m where you claim you are and I don’t see any warehouse B.”

He stopped in front of the one on the very end. His eyebrows went up.

“I do, however. See a warehouse 13. Could that be where you are?”

“I don’t know,” came the annoyed answer. “Can you hear this?”

For a moment, he didn’t hear anything. Then there was the distinct sound of pounding against the metal wall of the building he was standing in front of.

The building where the ceiling had caved in.

Oh.

Castiel’s phone beeped with an incoming call. He pulled the phone away from his ear and glanced at it to see it was from Sam.

He ignored it and turned his attention back to his current. . .problem. 

“How did you get in there?”

“Don’t worry about it,” came the answer. “just get me out.”

Yes, but. . .he didn’t know how.

Two years ago, he would have still had his -- “mojo” and this wouldn’t have been an issue.

Then again, two years ago, he wouldn’t have been getting phone calls from demons in the middle of the night for a covert rescue mission.

Well. . .covert for him anyway. He really didn’t know what it was that kept Meg from just telling Sam and Dean.

Not that they’d believe her.

Not that they’d let her stand in front of them long enough for her to tell them.

“How do you propose I get you out?” he said after a moment’s considering the wall.

“Come around to the none busted side,” she said.

He frowned. “But you’re right here. I can hear you.”

“Okay,” she said. “Then open this side.”

He frowned harder now. “Get away from the wall. I have to put the phone down.”

Silence for a moment. “Okay.”

It took longer than he thought it would to bust the wall open. Mostly because he was worrying about accidentally causing the wall to crush her and that meant making sure he didn’t bust any bricks too far down or too far up.

He finally managed to make a hole big enough for her to crawl through and he reached his hand in, not entirely certain she wasn’t going to bite it off.

“Give me your hand.”

“I can do it,” came the response. “Move.”

He wanted to roll his eyes, but managed to refrain. “You know, this is why you have to call me to come help you,” he said. “if you were nicer, you’d have friends.”

Well. . .and if she wasn’t a psychotic bitch half the time, but that was mostly Dean’s wording and he wasn’t going to bring that up right now.

Meg poked her head out, wriggling her shoulders after her. “I don’t need friends, Clarence. I need -- Ooof. I need a hand.” She reached out and waved her arm at him helplessly. “Give me your hand.”

He reached out and grabbed her hand, dropping the sledgehammer as he did so because he had to brace himself as she tried to use his arm to drag herself out of the hole.

Castiel caught onto her hand with both of his and pulled. He could hear her feet scrabbling against the wall and he worried as a lot of dust came toppling down from the bricks above her head.

Then suddenly there was a slight sucking sound and she toppled face forward onto the hard pavement.

Meg crawled around until she was in a sitting position and looked up at him. She was covered in a thick layer of dust and mortar clung to her hair and her cheek.

His fingers twitched involuntarily with the need to push the hair that was in her face out of her face but he managed to hold still. At the moment, it would be like trying to pet a caged dog. She’d sooner bite his hand off than stand still and let it happen.

Which was a reason in and of itself that he should have ignored that damned message. A reason why he should march straight back to the hotel and tell Sam and Dean that she was in the city and that they should do something about it.

The notion that he should do something about it himself never occurred to him.

Her tongue snaked out to lick her lip and she made a face at the taste. 

He found himself mirroring the movement without making a face. Her eyes drifted up to his face and she grinned.

“What was that about ground rules, Clarence?” Meg said, moving forward until she completely invaded his personal space and he found it impossible to move out of her way. He also had the intense desire to touch her hair again.

She grinned at him. “I owe you a payment,” she said. She laughed suddenly. “And to think it was Ruby we always dubbed the whore.” 

He raised an eyebrow at this. “I doubt she ever traded sexual favors for rescues.”

She grinned at him. “At least I’ve never claimed to be after anything else.”

True.

She’d also never claimed to be on any side other than her own.

Which was again a reason why he should be coming up with a way to destroy her, not standing here in the rising sun making small talk.

He sighed. “Have you eaten?”

She raised an eyebrow at this, no doubt thinking this was meant to be a sexual reference of some kind. After a moment, she shook her head. “I’ve been trapped in a collapsed building all night.”

True.

“Good.” He gestured her ahead of him. “There’s a restaurant two blocks down. You can tell me the story of how you got trapped in that building and I’ll tell you what I’ve decided is acceptable behavior.”

“Which I will promptly ignore,” she said, letting him guide her out of debris.

“Of course.”

Meg turned to look at him.

“You’d better return those calls before the boys start to worry.” She grinned. “You wouldn’t want them to come looking for you.”

Castiel stared at her for a moment.

“Maybe we can do without the wise cracks.”

She tipped her head to the side and grinned. “How long have you known me?”

“Or I could call them back and tell them exactly where you are and for them to bring the knife.”

Meg stood up a little straighter.

“You wouldn’t do that,” she said. “I’d just tell them you were the one that broke me out.”

He didn’t think he gave away anything with his facial expression, but maybe he was wrong because after a moment, she relaxed some and grinned at him again.

“You buy the French toast and I won’t contemplate telling your boys exactly what you’ve been getting up to when they’re not looking.”

He stared at her again for a long moment.

“Deal.”


End file.
